From the beginning Soneva Fushi had sustainability embedded in its culture. When we first visited over 18 years ago, they were pioneering a reverence for the earth and its protection through all aspects of the resort. At that time this was unique and set themselves apart from other luxury resorts and raised the eyebrows of many in the Maldives and beyond.

Soneva Fushi’s commitment to environmental protection has only continued to grow and on our most recent visit in June 2021, we couldn’t wait to see all of their hard work. Soneva’s mantra that luxury and sustainability can be interconnected has well and truly been taken to new levels.

Every area of the resort shines with sustainability. Our visit to what the island fondly calls “Waste World” bears witness to the proud fact that almost 90% of the waste is recycled. Here the waste is organized, sorted and processed for a new purpose. On the island glass is crushed, heated and reused throughout the resort as décor, windows, drinking glasses and even as part of concrete mixing. As always, resort guests are asked to take any plastic waste back home with them to recycle, however, a new interactive and educational project has been launched to have plastics and aluminum turned into useful and creative keepsakes, a true closed loop approach.

The island gardens and natural landscaping provides most of the food and the newly added vegan restaurant “Shades of Green” brings a new dining dimension to the already amazing selections. Coconuts are plentiful on the island and Soneva are continually coming up with more creative ways of using the entire coconut. The husks are composted, pressed into containers for planting, spun into rope used around the island, the coconut milk and flesh for cooking and now most recently the coconut oil is used in the spa.

Construction uses sustainably sourced wood and the most recent addition of the stunning over water villas have beautiful roof tiles made completely from recycled resort plastic. Old wood and construction waste is slowly turned into charcoal for cooking and styrofoam shipping containers are crumbled and mixed into lightweight concrete building blocks.

The décor is all natural, amenities are packaged in paper and even the lights are controlled by metal knobs. It is challenging to find any plastic being used throughout the resort at all.

Soneva are proudly 100% carbon neutral. Soneva’s pioneering efforts require leadership, innovation, investment and constant education of staff and guests. This resort authentically demonstrates a commitment to “sustainability” and “social responsibility”. An example for the world to emulate.